Boxing Day Cricket 2017

 Posted by Tony Hutton

The 68th successive charity Boxing Day cricket match took place today at North Leeds Cricket Club .
After early morning rain, the weather relented and after a cloudy start the later stages of the game were played in bright sunshine.

Two late withdrawals of long time regulars Steve Lawrence and Harwood Williams from the Northern Cricket Society side did not detract from the visitors performance and three of their batsmen reached the thirty run mark, which meant they had to retire. Star of the show was South African James van de Merwe who reached 29 with a six and promptly hit another one before retiring on 35.

The game was played on a matting wicket rather than the usual artificial strip alongside and this seemed to encourage the batsmen who put on the highest score for some time, certainly by the NCS side who have been well beaten in recent years. As the weather improved so did the size of the crowd which by the end of the first innings had grown considerably. The Northern innings finished on 175-5 with three retirements in their 25 overs, all helped by plenty of vocal encouragement from skipper Andrew Stoddart.

The home side's reply was played in bright sunshine, although with a chill breeze which sent most of the crowd either into the welcoming warmth of the bar, where hot and cold drinks were being sold in good numbers as well as a healthy trade in mince pies and pork pies, or onto the pavilion balcony.

The crowd included former players with long memories of playing in the snow possibly around forty years or even longer ago, such as Harold Todd and Reg Parker. This is always a wonderful social occasion for spectators to meet up at Christmas and remember such tales of long ago. Sadly for once the North Leeds reply did not live up to expectations and wickets fell at regular intervals to leave them all out for 85 and the Northern Cricket Society victors by a large margin of 90 runs.

Yorkshire 2nd XI & Academy fixtures published

Posted by Tony Hutton

Just a quick message for the faithful few. Yorkshire have published the fixtures for the 2nd XI and Academy teams for next season. They all appear on the county website. Still one or two unfortunate clashes with first and second elevens at home on the same dates and so far no fixture for Stamford Bridge unless they get the three day friendly in April.

Time to look forward

posted by John Winn

Tomorrow, December 21st, marks the winter solstice and my smart phone tells me that the sun will rise in the Lower Ure Valley at 8:22 and set at 15:44, after which the days will start to lengthen and by mid January, in the evenings at least, we will begin to see the difference. Time for the pcw to start looking forward to the 2018 season and for those in the Leeds area there is a chance to see the traditional match at North Leeds CC on Boxing Day. Some leagues have already published their fixtures for next season, Aire Wharfe for example will begin on April 14th while the Huddersfield League will begin as is traditional on the third Saturday in April, the 21st.

Last year I began my league cricket season watching by visiting five new grounds in Huddersfield and despite typical April squally weather and at times a biting wind I saw  enough cricket to make the journey worthwhile. Too early to say where my 2018 will begin but my eye was caught last week by the publication of the draw for the ECB Club KO competition. Winners last year were Essex outfit Wanstead and Snaresbrook who have a bye in the first round which is to be played on April 22nd. Their second round opponents will be either Upminster or Winchmore Hill. Last year's beaten finalists, Ormskirk also have a bye and will be at home to the winners of Lostock and Chorley on May 13th.

Group 1 covers East and North Yorkshire and the North East. Some interesting first round ties here include Stamford Bridge v Barnard Castle and  Clifton Alliance v Richmondshire. The winners of this latter tie will be at home to South Northumberland in Round 2 on May 22nd. South Northumberland were expelled from last year's competition for fielding an ineligible player and will no doubt be doubly determined to progress this time. In Group 2 one of my local teams, Harrogate travel to Doncaster, the winners to meet Hanging Heaton. Sessay, so prominent in the village cup in recent years, have made the step up to the club contest and visit Barnsley Woolley Miners on April 22nd. Should they get through Chesterfield will be their opponents in the second round, a home tie for the North Yorkshire side.

The full draw is available at ecb.play-cricket.com. As this will probably be my last posting before Christmas may I wish our readers a Happy Christmas and good cricket watching in 2018. Thank you for your support.

Michael Carney 1947-2017

posted by John Winn

Mick Carney's funeral will be on Thursday December 21st, which would have been his seventieth birthday. It will be held at St. Cecilia and St Patrick's RC Church, Ryhope Road Sunderland SR2 7TG at 12:05pm. After the service people can make their way to The Riverside Ground, Chester-le Street where they will be joined by family and close friends after a private cremation.

Mick's family ask that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to British Heart Foundation. These can be made at the church or at The Riverside. People are invited to wear some colour on the day at what will be a celebration of Mick's life.

Memories of Perth

Posted by Tony Hutton

John Winn has already reported the sad death of Mick Carney. I only knew him briefly but Mick was a larger than life character who always enlivened our visits to Riverside. As a regular reader of our blogs he was always ready with a comment, usually complimentary, whenever I met him. Added to that he was a passionate and long suffering supporter of Sunderland football club, as my own grandad was for many years, so I always felt we had something in common. He will be sadly missed.

The WACA Scoreboard

The Test Match currently taking place at the WACA in Perth will be the last match played at this famous ground which I have been fortunate enough to visit on several occasions, having the good fortune of a cousin who lives just south of this most pleasant of cities. The TV pictures have shown the vast new all sports stadium which has been built just across the river at Burswood, again not my idea of a proper cricket ground.

My first visit was in February,1991 when England played the 5th Test of the series at Perth after I had seen the drawn game in Adelaide. I remember stepping off the plane on arrival in Perth into the overpowering heat which hit us in the face. It was the hottest temperature for many years but fortunately returned to normal a day later. My cousin immediately drove us to his home, in his air conditioned car, and deposited us in his swimming pool with a bottle of beer to cool us down!

WACA Pavilion in the centre of picture.

The approach to the ground through the park next door was very attractive and everything about the ground, including the huge floodlight pylons, seemed so different from the grounds in England. The large grass bank in front of the old scoreboard was a wonderful place to watch the game from and the museum under the stands and the welcome from the Aussie officials for English fans was excellent. This was just before the growth of the Barmy Army which blighted the tour four years later with their inane chanting.

Mark Waugh had made his debut at Adelaide and scored 138 in the first innings. David Boon also scored a century in the second innings but England batted out for a draw on 335-5 on the last day with a hundred from Gooch and good scores from Atherton and Alan Lamb. Here at Perth England were not so fortunate with Craig McDermott destroying their first innings by taking 8-97, helped by the afternoon Freemantle Doctor wind. Lamb made 91 and Robin Smith 58 but from 212-3 England collapsed to 244 all out - a familiar story.

England's opening bowlers Devon Malcolm and Gladstone Small made a good start but Australia's strength in depth brought runs from the middle order with Boon 64, Matthews 60 not out and Healy 42 giving them a total of 307. England's second innings was even more disastrous than the first and they were all out for just 182 only Robin Smith 42 and Phil Newport of Worcester, who had been flown out as a late replacement, 40 not out, making any runs at all. The three Aussie pace bowlers McDermott, Alderman and Hughes did all the damage.

So the match finished on day four when Australia knocked of the 120 runs to win with only one wicket down to win by nine wickets. This gave us some extra time to see the sights and the whole city seemed so attractive, especially the wonderful Kings Park, together with the surrounding areas like Freemantle and Rottnest Island. I was still working at this time but was very attracted to the lifestyle of Western Australian and could quite have fancied going to live there.

Finally best wishes for Christmas to all our readers helped by this card from Australia just received from a friend recently returned from the Adelaide and Brisbane Tests.

Sad News

posted by John Winn

In my most recent posting I mentioned that Michael Carney was in hospital in Sunderland. Sadly since then I have received the news that Mick died on Saturday night. He would have been seventy next week. Mick, a retired teacher was a member of both Durham and Middlesex County Clubs and it was at The Riverside where I had most contact with him, usually finding time to assess the prospects for play before he took his regular seat on the members' balcony. This photograph taken at Lord's in September 2016 shows Mick, right, chatting with my friends John Fisher, centre, and John Gawthrope. 

Mick taught at the same school in Peterlee for 39 years until his retirement in 2008. Prominent in union activities he rose to be President of NASUWT. Mick was a talented artist and his portraits of Geoff Cook and Paul Collingwood hang in the Long Room at The Riverside. I and many others will miss his presence in that room when the 2018 season comes along. I will post details of the funeral arrangements when I have them.    

Reasons to be cheerful, not many.

posted by John Winn

Every cloud and that sort of thing but it was well into Tony's last posting before the 'glimmer of good news' broke through the cloud of disappointment shrouding the publication of the 2018 fixtures last week. Many have taken to twitter since to express their particular frustrations. A Lancashire supporter has pointed out that the curtain will close on championship cricket at Old Trafford not later than the 25th of July, the last scheduled day of the Roses match after which there will be there three T20 games and possibly a quarter final in that competition. Might just be worth popping over the Pennines on July 25th to hear the first cry of 'winter well'. Our Hartlepool correspondent has been in touch steaming at the prospect of almost half Durham's home championship games being after the August Bank holiday and that the floodlit game with Warwickshire will be played in mid summer week at a ground which is 54 degrees north and when at that time of year the sun does not set until 9:45 pm.

Four of Durham's seven home fixtures clash with games at Headingley or Scarborough and they have missed out on a trip to Lord's as they will play Middlesex only once, at The Riverside on September 24th. Some consolation for this comes by way of Durham being part of the Cheltenham Festival with a match against Gloucestershire beginning at that splendid venue on July 22nd. I last saw my native county play there in 1997 when my friend Peter Sixsmith, currently appearing as Santa Claus on the Weardale Polar Express, and I met up for the first day of four. Durham won the toss and chose to bat and were skittled out for 86 with only John Morris and Nick Speak making double figures. Things perked up when Simon Brown and John Wood took early  wickets but centuries from Mark Alleyne and Jack Russell saw the West Country men to 471 for 6 declared. Durham fared much better in their second innings with current coach Jon Lewis hitting 81 and David Boon 66. This was enough to take the game into the fourth day and had they survived just a little longer they would have been saved by heavy rain. Alleyne was man of the match with nine wickets to go with his 169. 'Glos' took the maximum 48 points from the festival, they had beaten Derbyshire easily the previous week, points which took them to the top of the table. Their season fell away with no wins after mid August and they finished seventh. Champions were Glamorgan and Durham passed the wooden spoon to Sussex. Surprisingly perhaps, for T20 had not been invented, the season finished just one week earlier than it will in 2018.

What of Yorkshire twenty years ago? Wisden reports that they had given up on the possible move to Wakefield and begun talks with their landlords 'to see if the existing ground could be redeveloped'. Wisden also claimed that there was open disagreement between captain David Byas and the committee over the future of Peter Hartley and 'David Bairstow's tragic death cast a pall over the county'. After all this sixth place in the championship was not such a bad effort.

Those of our readers who know Eddie Marshall, Darlington Eddie, and Mick Carney will be sorry to hear both have been ill recently. Eddie has been discharged from hospital and is in a care home prior to returning home but the last I heard Mick was still in hospital in Sunderland. We wish them both speedy recoveries.

Finally can I give a plug to a newly published ACS book, Cricket and Cannons, which covers the playing of cricket during the Crimean War. The author is a good friend of mine, David Shimwell, we shared a flat when students at Durham University, and the book 'deftly combining military and cricket history, provides a fascinating and original insight into cricket taking place in the mid-Victorian era'. David is a Peak District man, his uncle was my wife's primary school headmaster, but he lives in North West Durham and is regular watcher at The Riverside. Go to the ACS Website at http://acscricket.com for further details.

A glimmer of good news

Posted by Tony Hutton

It pains me greatly even to mention the antics going on in Australia with over paid international cricketers engaging in childish behaviour as they prance about from bars, to airports to press conferences where everything is recorded by the scandal mongering media.

You do feel however that if anyone deserved a proper head butt it might be the England selectors who have blighted the career of Johnny Bairstow for far too long, first leaving him out of the team and taking him round the world as drinks waiter, then refusing him permission to play county cricket and now batting him at number seven to look after the tailenders! Some of them don't seem to know which end of the bat to hold.

Words almost fail me but there has been a glimmer of good news with the announcement of the county cricket fixtures for 2018 in their now familiar truncated form. In addition a splendid article by Paul Hayward in today's Daily Telegraph which tells the story of England's oldest living Test cricketer Don Smith of Sussex. Smith is now 94 years old and lives in Adelaide where tomorrow's second Test is being played, needless to say day/night with pink ball!

Smith will not be there to watch. He shares my own philosophy about present day Test cricket, saying
'I stopped going to matches years ago because I can't stand the noise. I just want to see my beautiful game of cricket'. His memories are from a different age and reading his story you can't help to surmise a better one.

Now to return to the newly announced first class fixtures, preceded of course by the T20 fixtures a day earlier. The ECB have no doubt on which side their bread is buttered. They continue their policy of alienating the core supporters of the game, the county members, by cramming the proper cricket (county championship games) into early and late season. Perhaps it is time for The Government to instigate a survey of the death rate of senior citizens caused by hypothermia due to watching cricket during April, May and September.

You will be very lucky to watch county cricket in this sort of mid-summer weather.

There is still the lack of geographical knowledge in that Durham and Yorkshire are often at home on the same dates, when many northern cricket watchers are members of both counties, but I forget members are no longer important, as the powers that be search for their wonderful (if non existent) 'new audience'. Even the admirable Minor Counties are introducing a T20 competition and will play their one day trophy games in coloured clothing, although the number of championship fixtures at least remains the same.

As I say there are glimmers of good news - proper cricket will still be played at Scarborough (including even an Under 19 Test Match), at Cheltenham, Chesterfield, Colwyn Bay, Southport and Swansea. Even the odd day at the building site that will be Headingley might be possible. We await the county Second XI and League cricket fixtures with baited breath so that we can plan our visits to the many beautiful grounds still available to watch cricket.

It would be stretching the imagination too far to expect two England victories in Australia this week, but if our Rugby League side can win the World Cup in Brisbane tomorrow that will be a start.